The Wayne County Board of Canvassers seemed prepared last week to toss about 20,000 votes cast for Duggan largely because poll workers didn’t use hash marks to tally the votes. It was a ridiculous notion. Hash marks aren’t required by state law, which merely requires vote counters to show their work. But even if that weren’t the case, discarding properly cast votes would be the wrong decision.

A state manual for boards of canvassers suggests a simple remedy if errors were made: Summon election workers to correct them. But because the county board met on the last day of the post-election canvass period, that wasn’t an option, and canvassers instead voted to turn the matter over to the state.

Detroit primary voters cast more than 44,395 write-in votes for Duggan, placing the former Detroit Medical Center chief in the top spot. Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon ranked second, with 28,352 votes. Krystal Crittendon, who finished in third place, had 5,149 votes. Without the 18,000 contested ballots, Duggan would have finished second, with 23,970 votes.

State workers will review ballots from precincts in which there’s a discrepancy between the city and county tallies; precincts in which poll workers didn’t use hash marks or show their work, and precincts in which the electronic tabulator showed a smaller number of votes than the number of write-in votes physically recorded on the tally sheet. They expect to be finished by Sept. 3.

Wayne County Clerk Cathy Garrett, at whose feet much of the confusion surrounding this process can be laid, has so far met criticism of her role with evasions and finger-pointing. She is the sister of AFSCME Council 25 President Al Garrett, who is backing Napoleon. The clerk insists that she found out about the hash mark omission only last Tuesday, “like everyone else.” But it’s Garrett’s elections department that should have identified the problem and brought it to the attention of county canvassers while there was was still time to correct it. Instead, she left canvassers no choice but to punt to the state.

Reviewing the votes was always the right decision. The right to cast a vote, and to have that vote count, is the heart and soul of the democratic process; to discard votes because of a procedural error is a betrayal of that process. The Michigan Supreme Court said as much when it ruled that ballots cannot be disqualified because of poll worker error.

In a perfect world, the completion of the state review — and subsequent certification of the vote — would bring welcome closure to the primary election. But this roller coaster will be back on the rails before long. Four-time Detroit mayoral candidate Tom Barrow has said he plans to ask for a recount once the vote is certified by the state.

If we’re lucky, we may know who won the primary before the November general election.